Bruce Dickinson: Iron Maiden front man is battling cancer | The Independent Bruce Dickinson: Iron Maiden front man is battling cancer The 56-year-old singer has undergone chemotherapy for a cancerous lump found at the back of his tongue Thursday 19 February 2015 13:10 BST Click to follow Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden’s frontman, rocks the crowd Darko Tomas/Rex Bruce Dickinson of English heavy-metal band Iron Maiden is undergoing treatment for cancer. The band announced in a statement today that front man Dickinson, 56, has a tumour at the back of his tongue. It was discovered during a routine check-up and it is expected that Dickinson will make a recovery by the end of May. The band is due to go on a tour of Europe from 27 May, but the band have urged fans to be patient. Hundreds of upset Iron Maiden fans took to Twitter to wish him well. Dickinson is known and loved for his on-stage charisma and his wide vocal range. Last year he said he'd boycotted Glastonbury for being too bourgeois. “Personally I have no interest in going to Glastonbury,” he said.

“In the days when Glasto was an alternative festival it was quite interesting, but anywhere Gwyneth Paltrow goes and you can live in an air-conditioned yurt is not for me.” Read the full statement below: "Just before Christmas, Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson visited his doctor for a routine check-up. This led to tests and biopsies which revealed a small cancerous tumour at the back of his tongue. A seven week course of chemotherapy and radiology treatment was completed yesterday. "As the tumour was caught in the early stages, the prognosis thankfully is extremely good. Bruce’s medical team fully expect him to make a complete recovery with the all clear envisaged by late May. It will then take a further few months for Bruce to get back to full fitness. "In the meantime we would ask for your patience, understanding and respect for Bruce and his family’s privacy until we update everyone by the end of May.

Bruce is doing very well considering the circumstances and the whole team are very positive." Flying private with Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson | Corporate Jet Investor Flying private with Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson By Alud Davies February 28, 2014 08:55 Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson flies Corporate Jet Investor from Blackbushe Airport, near London, to St Athan-Cardiff on the Total Eclipse business jet. I should probably admit right from the start that I was a little bit skeptical about flying on the Total Eclipse. While I have never been particularly convinced about the aircraft itself – or the very light jet model in general – the weather leading up to the day hadn’t been perfect for flying, so it was with trepidation that I arrived at Blackbushe Airport in the south of England to meet up with Cardiff Aviation’s Bruce Dickinson. ALSO READ: Quizzing Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson on the Eclipse 550 Dickinson, front man for heavy metal rock group Iron Maiden and former airline pilot, joined the board of European Eclipse distributor Aeris Aviation late in 2013 as non-executive chairman and had kindly offered to take Corporate Jet Investor for a flight in the Total Eclipse.

The Eclipse we’ll be flying on today is 2007-build msn 0072 / N843TE, originally delivered to Helijet Holdings in Texas, but now owned by Aeris Aviation and based at Dunkeswell Airport in the UK. Although it’s one of the older Eclipse 500 models, the aircraft has been upgraded to Total Eclipse standards and now includes added system functionality, the most important of which is GPS-coupled autopilots. Meeting Bruce Dickinson After brief introductions, Bruce gives us a quick look around the aircraft, both inside and out. The aircraft today is fitted with two seats in the back, one for me and the other for Corporate Jet Investor’s deputy editor Alex Andrews, who is also along for the ride. Before we can depart to St Athan-Cardiff Airport in South Wales, we’re taken to the Blackbushe cafe, where Dickinson tells us all about the Eclipse, his involvement with Aeris Aviation and some upcoming developments over tea and coffee. Total Eclipse of the heart It’s fairly clear from the start that Dickinson has a bit of a love affair with the Eclipse, telling us all about the aircraft with a wide smile and a glint in his eye.

He tells us about his flights the previous day, a zig-zag that started from Blackbushe and visited Cardiff, Southend and Cranfield, before getting him back to Blackbushe in time for dinner with his family in West London. The Total Eclipse parked at Blackbushe Airport. Bruce estimates the hourly cost of the Eclipse to be £500 (less than $850) and enthuses about how the previous day’s flying wouldn’t be possible in any other jet. He talks about the Eclipse using smaller airports, EASA’s problems certificating the Eclipse 550 due to the US shutdown and talks with passion about upcoming plans with Aeris Aviation. One of the most interesting developments is a proposal for an Eclipse 550 ownership scheme that would work in a similar way to fractional jet ownership . Under the scheme, a maximum of four owners would enter into a company that purchases an Eclipse 550. That company would then be added to Cardiff Aviation’s Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC), with the company managing and flying the aircraft on behalf of the owners. Later in the day we’re shown the Cardiff Aviation facility at the main Cardiff International Airport and it’s proposed that this is where the jets will be based.

Cardiff International sees few business aircraft flights (although we notice a pair of King Air 200s sat on the ramp), but the airport operates 24 hours a day, so Dickinson sees Cardiff as the perfect base for a fleet of Eclipses. Dickinson commits flying Walking back to the Eclipse I tell Dickinson that after seeing a picture of the jet, my wife tried to stop me from coming today. I’m expecting a missive about how comfortable and safe the Eclipse is, but instead he just smiles and tells me that I should have just brought her along for the ride so she can see for herself. That comment in itself tells us a lot about the confidence Dickinson has in the aircraft he’s flying and soon enough we’re strapped in and given our full safety briefing by Captain Dickinson. Fortunately, the wind that had been battering the UK for much of the last few months is taking a break and the rain has calmed down too. After a brief exchange with Blackbushe tower, we’re given permission to taxi off the ramp and hold short of runway 25. Turning to us with a broad smile, Dickinson says “let’s commit flying” and gently spools up the engines as we enter the runway.

The Eclipse’s power to weight ratio of 1:3.3 at MTOW makes getting off the ground an easy task and in no time at all we’re gently lifting into the sky above the Hampshire countryside. Cruising to Cardiff As we’re only flying a short distance today, our cruising altitude is 13,000 ft, although the aircraft is certificated to fly at 41,000 ft. Dickinson explains that the aircraft handles like a bigger jet, which makes it a pleasure for him to fly. Inside the cabin Alex and I are busy snapping away on our cameras; the level of noise in the cabin isn’t as high as I was expecting and we don’t have issues hearing each other talk. Eclipse wing in-flight. Barely 15 minutes in our flight, we start approaching St Athan. On the radio, we can hear the St Athan tower refusing to let us descend lower until we’re visual with the airport. Later, Dickinson tells us that the cloud-base was low enough that he thought we might have to do a go-around.

Eventually we break through cloud at around 2,500 ft and get a bird’s-eye view of the main airport on the left-hand side. Soon we’re lined up on runway 08 at St Athan and our rock star pilot gently glides the jet down for the smoothest landing I’ve ever experienced. After a long role out, we’re quickly parked up at St Athan – which incidentally featured in finale of Sherlock Season 3 – where the only other aircraft in sight are ones that are being dismantled. A tour of Cardiff Aviation St Athan is home to Cardiff Aviation, which Dickinson co-owns with Mario Fulgoni, and he takes a great deal of pride on showing us around the facilities. As well as scrapping aircraft, Cardiff Aviation also offers a full-range of maintenance options, and in two of the company’s largest hangars today are a Mongolian Boeing 737-800 and a Vladivostock Avia Airbus A320. Inside Cardiff Aviation’s facility at St Athan-Cardiff Airport. The hangars the aircraft are housed in were once used by the Royal Air Force for maintaining the old Vickers VC-10 tanker aircraft and much of the equipment still remains.

One of Cardiff Aviation’s plans for the future involves completion work on Boeing BBJs, with the company currently bidding for its first contract. Dickinson walks us through the hangar that would be used. We then visit Cardiff Aviation’s facility at Cardiff International. We step inside a huge hangar, which contains three simulators side-by-side, two of which are Boeing 747 models, but the third is a Sikorsky S-61N helicopter simulator. Work is still being done inside, but Dickinson points out a red line across the hangar floor and tells us that a dividing wall will eventually separate the simulators from the business jet hangar. After our tour of Cardiff Aviation, it’s time to fly back or “commit flying” as Dickinson would say. But before we can leave, Dickinson is asked to sign a few posters for the Iron Maiden film ‘Flight 666.’ It turns out that a lot of airline CEOs were Iron Maiden fans when they were growing up. Back to Blackbushe Back on the Eclipse, it’s my turn to sit up front. After my un-glamorous clamber into the right-hand seat, Dickinson talks me through the systems.

This morning, he had talked about how easy it was to program the Flight Management Computer with the built-in keyboard and he quickly enters in the details for the flight. The flight from St Athan to Blackbushe is one that been done quite a few times and Dickinson is quickly able to load up a stored flight plan, which has an estimated 24 minute flight time. After departure from St Athan’s runway 08, we’ll make a left hand turn and then point the jet directly at Blackbushe. We’re given clearence by St Athan tower to start up and soon we’re on our way to the runway, entering at the 26 end and backtracking for a 08 departure. The Total Eclipse on the tarmac at St Athan-Cardiff Airport. Dickinson is keen to tell us that the Eclipse doesn’t need the full length of the runway to depart and true to his word, we slow down half way down the runway and start to turn around. Spooling up the engines half-way through the turn, we start to pick up speed. We’re not locked on the runway center-line by this point, but we’re skillfully overmanned until the front wheel lines up.

A gentle nudge forward of the throttles and we’re powering down the runway and off above the Welsh countryside. Once we reaching our cruising altitude of 13,000 ft, Dickinson talks me through the AVIO NG cockpit suite, showing me that everything he changes on his display is also changed on the screen in front of me. It’s a bright and clean system, with any changes being made to the on-screen display popping out for a few seconds so you can see what’s been changed. The Eclipse’s AVIO NG cockpit suite. Soon we’re alerted by Air Traffic Control to some traffic crossing in front of us at a few hundred feet below and we turn into a pair of plane spotters, both scanning the horizon to see if we can see the aircraft. The aircraft soon passes us several miles in front from left to right and once a safe distance we’re given clearance to start our decent into Blackbushe. Handed off by Farnborough to Blackbushe, we’re given permission to join the left-hand circuit for an approach to runway 25 and Dickinson turns off the auto-pilot, electing to fly the approach himself.

The approach is smooth and controlled and we’re soon back on firm ground having completed a pair of flights that have completely changed my opinion of the Eclipse. A great little aircraft So what did I really think? Although I had an open mind about the aircraft, there was a lingering thought at the back of my mind that this little aircraft would be exactly that: a small aircraft that might as well be a twin turboprop. But I must confess that I was actually really impressed with the Eclipse. With a power to weight ratio of 3:1, the aircraft took off effortlessly and the smoothness of the ride was far better than anticipated. It’s clear to see why Dickinson is so enamored with the Eclipse. It’s a great little aircraft capable of flying four people comfortably for up to two hours. Dickinson told us that he wished they made a slightly longer version that could accommodate a rear lavatory, but over short distances this isn’t much of an issue. Together with Aeris Aviation, Dickinson has big plans for the Eclipse 550 in Europe and it’s not hard to see why. Essentially, the aircraft returns to the basic premise of business aviation.

It gets you from one point to another quickly and comfortably and in doing so, it becomes the essential business tool that a private jet should be. By Alud Davies February 28, 2014 08:55 Bruce Dickinson: Everyone Knows Sharon Osbourne Was Behind Ozzfest Fiasco - Blabbermouth.net BRUCE DICKINSON: Everyone Knows SHARON OSBOURNE Was Behind OZZFEST Fiasco August 26, 2005 0 Comments The U.K.'s The Sun Online paper spoke to IRON MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson about the group's ill-fated final Ozzfest performance in San Berardino and their future plans. Read on: The Sun Online: Why is Reading so special? Bruce Dickinson: "It's where I was asked to join the band and it's also the first festival I ever went to in my life and also played. And this year it will be a big one, I promise and yes we'll be nervous." The Sun Online: You're playing just the four albums on this tour because of "The Early Years" DVD Part One? Will there be a Part Two?

Bruce Dickinson: "Yes, Part Two will be based around 'Live After Death' and 'Powerslave' and 'Somewhere in Time' and we have started working on it. The plan is to do what will be our biggest, most spectacular tour we have ever done. The 'Powerslave' era was the one that had all the toys. It had the massive Eddie, the huge mechanical hands and Ancient Egypt. And we want to recreate the whole deal." The Sun Online: You've ridden out every rock music trend and almost every band throughout has cited you as an influence. Why? Bruce Dickinson: "Yes that's weird isn't it? It's because we've never compromised. MAIDEN is about loyalty and pride and doing what you believe in and sticking with your beliefs. It's a bit like people who follow football teams. They sign up for a football team and support them all their lives even if they lose. That's us, and our fans are part of our gang." The Sun Online: Ozzfest, Reading and Leeds are all about new fans. Why are they important? Bruce Dickinson: "People who are as old as I am are generally not that fun to play to.

I know there'll be people reading this saying 'It's not true,' but 47-year-olds don't rock like 15-year-olds. They go absolutely mental and that's what keeps us going. We are playing songs approaching 25 years old and yet we have the youngest audience." The Sun Online: So what happened when you went on stage at Ozzfest? Bruce Dickinson: "We were hit by a co-ordinated barrage of bottle tops, lighters and eggs from a certain section at the front! Then the power for the PA and backline was completely pulled three or four times during songs. The band held it all together incredibly though and we just got really pumped up. It ended up being an amazing show. MAIDEN can pretty much deal with anything. We don’t get fazed too easily." The Sun Online: Who do you think was behind it all? Bruce Dickinson: "Everyone knows it's Sharon Osbourne. It's certainly not Ozzy or SABBATH — they have too much class to condone stunts like that. She hates me for making remarks about reality TV. I hate reality TV.

People should get off their arses and do stuff and not be so voyeuristic." The Sun Online: Her stunts seemed to backfire as you played a magnificent set and soon after, thousands walked out in disgust? Bruce Dickinson: "We left for the airport pretty well straight after we came off but we could tell there were a lot of disgusted fans who had paid good money to see us. The audience was incredibly behind us all the way and they really lifted us. If they hadn't been happy, there may have been a riot as those fans were really disgusted with the cowardly attacks." The Sun Online: Did you enjoy the Rockwalk of Fame presentation and what does it mean to you? Bruce Dickinson: "Well it's very American but behind it there are all these fans that are really into it and have all turned up. It's great. We are very proud of that day, though we ended up with filthy hands. It was great that Eddie rightfully got a handprint too." The Sun Online: You left the band in 1993. Is it something you regret? Bruce Dickinson: "Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

When I left I had no intention of coming back but in the intervening period, I ended up becoming a much better singer than I was before, certainly live. And coming back into the band I had a hell of lot more energy than in the two or years before I left and I stayed with it. I also came back with a determination that I'm never going to walk on stage again doing something I don't want to do as it's soul-destroying and eats you up." The Sun Online: How does MAIDEN fit in with family life? Bruce Dickinson: "Well, we get to run around like a lunatic and play music and my kids can come and watch. My 15- and 13-year-olds were in the front row at our New York gig, in the mosh pit. I suddenly saw these four security guards jump in and hold someone down. I thought they had my kids but then I looked and saw their little faces, sweating and screaming and I was ready to dive in." The Sun Online: And next for MAIDEN?

Bruce Dickinson: "We have the live album 'Death on the Road' out on Monday with a DVD to follow and then we record the new studio album next spring, which will be out next autumn. First we have the special fundraising Hammersmith Odeon show next week. It's for our old drummer Clive Burr's Multiple Sclerosis Trust Fund. I'm really looking forward to it. It will top off an amazing year which included a show in Sweden, where we played to 56,000 and were broadcast live to 20million people." The Sun Online: And next for you? Bruce Dickinson: "I go back to my 6 Music radio show and my job as an airline pilot. It's a proper, straightforward, regular job. I had to book holidays for the tour. I was straight off stage at Ozzfest to hightail it to LAX airport." Tags: Doctors 'Extremely Optimistic' About Bruce Dickinson Recovery REDDIT Karl Walter, Getty Images Just before the beginning of 2015, Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson got the news that he had a small cancerous tumor on the back of his tongue.

In the time since, he has completed a seven week course of chemotherapy and radiology treatments and has begun the recovery process. The band and their manager have been very good about keeping fans up to date on the progress of the singer. Drummer Nicko McBrain revealed that the group had finished recording their next album , but would wait until Dickinson was better before making plans to release it. Meanwhile, the band’s manager Rod Smallwood went into greater detail about what Dickinson has gone through and the optimism that surrounded his recovery process. Now comes more info on Dickinson’s status courtesy of the band’s Facebook page . Check out the post below. Over the last few days, Bruce has been to see his specialists and following examinations, including visual, we’re delighted to update everyone that the situation remains extremely optimistic for a full recovery. We will still not have final confirmation that the cancer has been completely eradicated until Bruce can have an MRI scan in May, as previously advised in Rod’s recent message to the fans on this site, and the period to full recovery will continue for a few months yet.

Typically Bruce’s immediate reaction to the specialists’ good news was to be as active as feasibly possible, taking in a couple of visits to the Maiden office, one to the Hybrid Air Vehicle hangar to see latest progress, and a brief trip to his local pub, much to the surprise and delight of all his friends there! We just wanted to share this latest piece of good news with all Maiden’s fans and, as usual, we’ll continue to keep you all updated officially on Bruce’s progress through ironmaiden.com We send our best to Dickinson, his family and the band as the singer continues his recovery. Stay tuned to Loudwire as we’ll keep you up to date on Dickinson and all things Maiden. 10 Amazing Bruce Dickinson Moments Subscribe to Loudwire on You Think You Know Iron Maiden? Subscribe to Loudwire on Safety In The Balance - YouTube Safety In The Balance Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Uploaded on Jun 10, 2011 HEAVY METAL FRONT MAN RAMPS UP INDUSTRY LOADING AWARENESS Astraeus Airlines Captain and legendary 'Iron Maiden' front man, Bruce Dickinson, is the presenter of a brand new flight safety production. "Safety in the Balance", which is available free of charge, is part of a joint initiative by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the UK aviation industry to highlight the importance of safe and accurate aircraft loading. The DVD, which was released during the summer of 2011, was commissioned by the Ground Handling Operations Safety Team (GHOST), a UK CAA/ industry group committed to develop strategies to mitigate the safety risks from aircraft ground handling and ground support activities. The group is made up of representatives from UK airlines and airport operators. Jason Sandever, the UK CAA's Aircraft Loading Inspector, was the focal point of the project. "It was clear we needed to make something that was not only engaging but also related directly to the target audience. Having worked within the ramp environment, I knew we had to do something a bit different." When it came to deciding who would be asked to present the film, Bruce was the obvious choice.

"Having seen him in action in another aviation mini-series and knowing that he was a keen enthusiast, I could think of no-one better." In addition to his line flying, Bruce is also a qualified Crew Resource Management Instructor. The team then secured the services of some enthusiastic film tutors and students from Exeter College, who throughout 2010, shot scenes at a number of locations including London Heathrow, East Midlands and at Oxford Aviation's Crawley Simulator. Jason said: "The footage jumps deliberately from various locations and aircraft as we wanted to involve as many airlines, ground handling agents and airports as we could. So, viewers shouldn't get cynical when they see Bruce go up the stairs of an Airbus A340, through a Boeing 747, down the steps of a Boeing 757 and into the cargo hold of an Airbus A321. It was meant to happen like that!" The film is not intended to replace the need for formal training, rather to compliment it. the general consensus of the GHOST team was that whilst the majority of current training does cover what to do and how to do it, the reason why is often missed.

For Jason, as an ex-Loadmaster, the importance of accurate aircraft loading was brought home in no uncertain terms in the late 1990s, when he was involved with an accident that was the direct result of a gross loading error. Both the crew members on board were killed in the accident. "Once you have experienced that kind of thing, you are left in no doubt that the worst case scenario can and does happen. Sometimes the challenge can be trying to make others believe that the outcome can be more than a paperwork error. It is so important that everyone involved is aware of the potential consequences," he said. All who watch the film should indeed get an overview of just why it is so important that aircraft are loaded according to a plan, both for cargo, baggage and passengers. Any changes to the load must be reported to the appropriate person and all loads must be restrained. Whilst new and existing ramp personnel are the obvious target audience for the film, it is hoped airlines and airports will screen it for other staff including, dispatch personnel; local and centralised load planners; airline and agent representatives; cargo warehouse employees; commercial departments; airline management; and of course flight deck and cabin crew.

Since the release of Safety in the Balance in mid-June 2011, there have been requests for copies of the DVD from various Training, Safety and Standards Departments around the globe. That's in addition to the worldwide distribution provided by UK based Airlines and Ground Handling Agents. Some of the more interesting requests came from locations such as Hawaii, El Salvador, Greenland, Alberta and Airbus Flight Operations. Feedback received has shown that Bruce and the team have managed to successfully complete a product that is not only educational but also enjoyable to watch. However, all involved are very aware that the DVD alone will not change an industry wide problem overnight - so will no doubt remain busy! As well as the benefit the DVD will bring to those involved in the loading process, the project also brought together many people from different organisations, in many cases forging strong working relationships which the CAA hope will help to improve safety standards in the future. Category Iron Maiden: 'Fame is the excrement of creativity' | Music | The Guardian Bruce Dickinson Iron Maiden: 'Fame is the excrement of creativity' What happened when Maiden superfan Frank Turner met his hero Bruce Dickinson?

We listen in to the singers' rants about music snobs, big egos and Autocues Bruce Dickinson and Frank Turner at the Copenhell festival in Denmark. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian Share on Messenger Close What breaks the ice between Frank Turner and Iron Maiden's frontman Bruce Dickinson is not the large tattoo of Iron Maiden's undead mascot etched for ever into the back of Turner's calf. Nor is it the news that Turner won his round of Celebrity Mastermind with Maiden as his specialist subject. It isn't even Turner's confession that he made a wish, while cutting the cake at his 12th birthday in 1993, that Dickinson would one day rejoin the band he left that year, and hence feels personally responsible for Dickinson's 1999 return. No, what really does it is the fact that both acts have produced their own brand of beer. "Brilliant!" Dickinson enthuses, backstage at Copenhagen's Copenhell festival in black shorts, hoodie and wool hat. "Have you got any?" Not that he is drinking today – he's flying his plane later.

For more than 30 years, Dickinson has teetered on the edge of rock'n'roll ludicrousness. When not fronting the fire-spewing, animatronic schlock-horror squealfest that is Iron Maiden, he has spent time as a commercial airline pilot, international fencer, TV presenter and first world war dogfight re-enactor in a show he is bringing to this year's Sonisphere festival at Knebworth in July, ahead of Maiden's headline set. Turner – folk/punk troubadour turned arena rabble-rouser and lifelong Maidenhead – has flown in from the US to meet and interview Dickinson ahead of their dual appearances at Sonisphere, and he is feeling a little jumpy. "They were the first rock'n'roll band I ever fell in love with," he explains. "I was a kid, music wasn't a part of my life and then I heard Iron Maiden and everything flipped instantly. My dad bought me a copy of Killers on cassette from Our Price at Waterloo station on his way home from work and he genuinely seems to believe that was his major parenting error to this day, because everything in my life changed when I heard that record.

I think they are unquestionably one of, if not the, best live act in the world. They've done 15 studio albums and of those I'd say at least 10 are stone-cold unimprovable classics, which is a pretty incredible hit rate for any band." Dickinson is in convivial mood so, cracking open a bottle of Maiden's Trooper ale, Turner goes straight for the gullet of his new arts media paymasters. Bruce Dickinson performing in 1983. Photograph: Ebet Roberts/Redferns FT: I wanted to start off talking about legacy and public perception. You guys are on nearly 60m records sold worldwide. By contrast, Elvis Costello has sold 12m albums. I'm a big Elvis Costello fan but in terms of public perception and particularly the arts media perception, some people take him more seriously. Do Iron Maiden care? BD: Fundamentally, no we don't. To use a farming analogy, we have our field and we've got to plough it and that's it. What's going on in the next field is of no interest to us; we can only plough one field at a time.

We are unashamedly a niche band. Admittedly our niche is quite big. FT: That's my point. People talk about cultural importance, but in some ways I think the impact that Maiden has had on music has been infinitely more than Elvis Costello's had. BD: The difference is, with the greatest respect to Elvis Costello, the way people think about him is not quite the same as [the way] they feel about Maiden. If you're a rabid supporter of a football team and you believe passionately in that team, the fact that they have a couple of off seasons doesn't stop you supporting them. As long as they maintain the integrity and don't take the piss. They can play appallingly as long as they're trying hard, and you'll forgive them. If they do it repeatedly over a period of years and then acquire a manager that makes everybody wear pink lipstick and a strange tutu then you may consider your allegiances. FT: I want to see more representation of Maiden on the South Bank Show.

BD: Yeah, but I would personally feel a bit like a lab rat in a cage where somebody comes along and says [adopts boffin voice]: "Oh, here's a specimen, here's a heavy metal chap who's got a brain, let's have a look at him closely … Let's find out why he likes this heavy metal stuff. Seeing as he has a brain he should be liking Elvis Costello!" The broadcast and TV media fail to get to grips with why the fans of the music like the music. Why do millions of people like Lord of the Rings movies and don't necessarily go and watch Gwyneth in a romcom? Answer: because they're fucking good! Because they tell a great story, because they're exciting, they've got some characters. FT: Right, but there's a kind of snobbish cultural gatekeeping going on. Metal , by some people, is considered a lesser art form but I feel he only way you can judge cultural impact is by the number of people that are into it. Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams (Live) on MUZU.TV . BD: The closest the "art establishment" ever came to embracing metal was punk.

The reason they embraced punk was because it was rubbish and the reason they embraced rubbish was because they could control it. They could say: "Oh yeah, we're punk so we can sneer at everybody. We can't play our fucking instruments, but that means we can make out that this whole thing is some enormous performance art." Half the kids that were in punk bands were laughing at the art establishment, going: "What a fucking bunch of tosspots. Thanks very much, give us the money and we'll fuck off and stick it up our nose and shag birds." But what they'd really love to be doing is being in a heavy metal band surrounded by porn stars." FT: I haven't seen any porn stars today. BD: I'm 56 this year, maybe it's beyond me. FT: One of the things I like about Maiden is that it's unpretentious, energetic, aggressive music for people that don't give a fuck about prevailing fashions and trends. BD: All this shit, in the 60s and 70s, did not exist. There was music and that was it.

It was no crime against God to have a ZZ Top album next door to a Motörhead album next door to a Simon & Garfunkel album next door to whatever. Nobody went: "That's fucking weird." Then, as magazines and radio stations proliferated and they started to compete, so they started to segment their audiences to sell themselves. In doing that, of course the bands started imitating media life. Bands started crafting their music, thinking: "I'll do this because that's the sort of thing Radio 1 will play, I'll do this because that's the kind of thing that that journalist likes." And it's just shit. Iron Maiden in front of their Boeing 757. Photograph: Newspix/Rex Features FT: Does Maiden still have a bucket list? BD: I can't be bothered to have those big, self-congratulatory moments.

People say: "What's it like standing onstage in front of quarter of a million people?" I say: "I really can't tell you actually because I'm too busy." You have no time to stand there and go: "Let me just stop thinking about the song, stop performing and let me just look at all these people looking at me … OK, thank you very much!" I see these wankers onstage at places like fucking Glastonbury wandering around as if they had a mirror attached to themselves, gurning for the fucking cameras and paying no attention whatsoever to that kid in the front row. FT: Who works a minimum wage job to save up for a ticket … BD: Not at Glastonbury he doesn't, he's living in his air-conditioned yurt and probably working for the BBC. But look them in the fucking eyes, y'know? We should be self-obsessed; actually we're audience-obsessed. That's what makes the difference between Maiden and everything else. I'm not interested in being famous. Fame is the excrement of creativity, it's the shit that comes out the back end, it's a by-product of it.

People think it's the excrement that you should be eating. It's not. It's the creativity and the audience and being there in the moment. FT: I've never understood the rock'n'roll super-puffed-up ego thing simply because for me, the business of being a performer and being onstage every day is an opportunity to make an arse out of yourself, deliberately or otherwise. I once punched myself in the nuts in front of 10,000 people in Italy trying to swing the mike around. BD: At 17 or 18, loaded with testosterone, you don't have much sense of being able to take the piss out of yourself. So if something goes wrong onstage it's like: "Angeeeeer! Equipment abuuuuse!" And you rapidly discover that these large inanimate bits of wood bite back if you hit them hard enough. At Rock in Rio, the first time we played it in '84, I was playing this nice guitar and the monitors just were not to my liking.

It was only 500,000 people at the biggest rock gig in the world ever, we'd had three days of madness down there, proper Beatlemania, and we run onstage and I'm thinking: "Fucking hell, it sounds like shit!" I run over to the monitor desk and I'm yelling at the guy: "Your monitors suck, you cunt!" and I smashed the guitar in half over the top of his monitor desk to make the point, which didn't really solve anything. First of all I'd destroyed a perfectly good guitar, and the monitors were still shit. So I go back onstage in front of 500,000 people and kick the monitors off the front of the stage, so now there are no monitors. Worse than bad monitors is no monitors. We did the gig, apparently it was a classic. You do that when you're 18, 21, 22, but at some point you go: "This is all a bit self-important, isn't it? Is it all about me?" Frank Turner - Recovery on MUZU.TV . FT: Has your voice changed with age?

BD: Yes, the tone of it changes because your body shape changes. As you get older your voice actually gets weightier, it gets fatter. [But with Maiden] there's only one singer, there's nobody hiding behind the amps, unlike some other guys we shan't mention. And we still don't have an Autocue. Yay! I never realised that people were using Autocues. What the fuck is that all about? People pay good money and you can't even remember the sodding words. The daftest one I ever saw was [Judas Priest's] Breaking the Law. It's on the fucking Autocue. "Breaking the law, breaking the law/Breaking the law, breaking the law/Breaking the law, breaking the law/Breaking the law" – guess what? – "breaking the law." It's ludicrous. FT: We're on right before you guys at Sonisphere. BD: Are you on before or after I get shot down? [The dogfight] only came about because we did the Spitfire [fly-past] last time for Download [in 2013]. My mate is the team manager for the Great War Display Team.

They've all got replica first world war fighters. [My Fokker triplane] is Red Baron central. It flies exactly the same as the aeroplane did in 1917; it's like flying a giant set of bookshelves. We try to fill the sky with aeroplanes, so as you look up you'll see what looks like nine planes dogfighting each other and every now and then someone will catch fire and smoke will come out. What it looks like from the ground is one big sheet of aeroplanes all milling around. Any dogfighting actually takes place at 200 feet, front and centre in front of the audience. They said: "Do you have a parachute?" and I said: "What's the fucking point? At 200 feet, if you fuck it up you're dead." FT: Then I'm onstage with an acoustic guitar! Turner's well aware of what he's up against at Sonisphere. Out at Copenhell mixing desk he air-drums through the entire Maiden set as Dickinson leaps around the stage. But it's the punk rock freedom of Maiden and their fans that Turner really connects to.

"There's something so dedicatedly anti-fashion about it," he says. "It's about music and community and it's completely impervious to outside suggestion. Maiden do Maiden and they don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks, and that's hugely inspiring to me." Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson To Take Part In Charity Road Trip - Blabbermouth.net IRON MAIDEN's BRUCE DICKINSON To Take Part In Charity Road Trip June 30, 2016 0 Comments According to the Surrey Mirror , IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson and his son Griffin are among a group of 32 friends who are driving to France with the hope of raising £50,000 for four of their favorite charities. The drivers will travel 832 miles in pairs in cheap cars to raise funds for children, domestic violence victims and those less wealthy than themselves. The Dash To The Med starts on Wednesday, September from Reigate in Surrey and ends in Cannes, on Saturday, September 24. The rules of the event are simple — each car has to be worth less than £500 and no GPS navigation or motorways must be used throughout the journey. For more information, click here .

Being lead singer of IRON MAIDEN is just one of Dickinson's many accomplishments. He gained a commercial pilot's license after learning to fly in the 1990s. In 2012 he set up Cardiff Aviation, an aircraft maintenance company which has recently signed an agreement with the Djibouti government to help re-launch their national airline. The Nottinghamshire-born singer has also relaunched interest in Zeppelin-like airships, having invested a reported £250,000 in the world's largest aircraft: a hybrid of a plane, balloon and hovercraft, the Airlander 10. If that wasn't enough, he has also created an aircraft fleet as a one-stop solution for airlines to use. On top of this, Dickinson is also an accomplished international fencer. Having overcome cancer in 2015, the singer is writing his autobiography for release in 2017, crafting a limited-edition beer. This is in addition to the two Trooper beers already in production, which have sold over 3.5 million pints in the U.K.

He has been described as a polymath and, adding to his prodigious talents, he now brings together all his business creativity and experience and, as a speaker, shares it with corporate audiences, entertaining, inspiring and motivating them in keynotes around the world.

Question: Which group does Bruce Dickenson front?
Answer: IRON MAIDEN